Beka Lamb
by Zee Edgell
This luminous novel brings to life a unique time and place—Belize in the 1950s, at the beginning of its struggle for independence from Great Britain—through the eyes of a girl at the edge of womanhood.
Fourteen-year-old Beka determines to spend a day in remembrance of her best friend, Toycie, whose death has not been marked by the traditional nine-day wake. We follow Beka on her journey of memory, which includes universal human dramas—love, loss, the power of sexuality—as well as vividly observed details of Belize and its fascinating mosaic of cultures, races, languages, and ethnicities.
Edgell offers the reader a window onto the rise of the Belizean independence movement, but the political issues never overwhelm the human scale of the book. Instead, we see the impact of the struggle on friendships and family relationships, and the ways in which larger social issues reflect personal conflicts and challenges. Family squabbles and national unrest are seen almost as elements of the same impulse toward growth, and all of these threads come together beautifully in Beka’s tapestry of recollection.
What makes this book so special to me is Edgell’s astonishing gift for language. Her sentences flow like music, or like a familiar bedtime story, soothing and hypnotic. Yet the power of her descriptions fills the reader’s mind with lasting pictures of a rich, colorful world.
This power is present in the book’s memorable, dreamlike opening:
On a warm November day Beka Lamb won an essay contest at St. Cecilia’s Academy, situated not far from the front gate of His Majesty’s Prison on Milpa Lane. It seemed to her family that overnight Beka changed from what her mother called a “flat-rate Belize Creole” into a person with “high mind”.
This passage shows another of Edgell’s strengths—her ability to infuse the rhythms of Belizean Creole into standard English prose in what seems like a perfectly natural way. To me, this is one of the most incredible achievements of the book; the dialogue is unforgettable.
No wake had been held for Toycie, not even one night’s worth. Miss Eila had explained to Gran that times were too hard to hold a proper nine nights for Toycie, especially as Miss Eila didn’t belong to a lodge or a syndicate. Miss Ivy offered to pay for the food, but Miss Eila’s refusal had been strong.
“Toycie would not have want me to put misself in Poor House over wake, thank you all the same, Miss Ivy,” she’d said.
Beka Lamb far surpasses more famous novels like To Kill A Mockingbird in successfully capturing complex social issues through the eyes of a young girl. A truly incredible book, it should be far more widely read than it is.
Other novels by Zee Edgell:
In Times Like These
Edgell’s second novel deals with the final stages of the Belizean struggle for independence in the 1980s, framed by the story of a widely traveled woman who returns to her native Belize to confront family conflicts, personal challenges, and social change.
The Festival of San Joaquin
Despite its highly charged plot—a woman who has been legally exonerated of the death of her abusive husband must face the condemnation of friends and family—this novel by Edgell is most memorable for the power of its observation and characterization. Belize’s mestizo community takes center stage in this powerful story.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
by Daniel Tammet
Daniel Tammet, the author of this moving and graceful memoir, has a very unusual mind. He is affected by Asperger’s Syndrome, a neurological condition related to autism; he’s also a mathematical and linguistic savant, who holds the world record for reciting more than 22,500 digits of pi, and who speaks several languages (including one he’s invented himself). And Tammet lives in a world of synesthesia, a cross-pollination of sensory perceptions where days (like the Wednesday he was born on) can be “blue” and sounds can have shapes.
There are a lot of challenges for someone in Daniel Tammet’s position. One thing this extraordinary book makes clear, though, is that there are also many opportunities. Tammet is candid about the difficulties he faces in dealing with tasks most of us take for granted, like understanding metaphors and listening to conversations in a crowded room. But when he writes about the ways in which his talents can take wing, the joy he feels in using his unique brain and its gifts is unmistakable.
Most of us are familiar with what’s called “savant syndrome” from the movie Rainman, featuring Dustin Hoffman’s unforgettable portrayal of a mathematical genius with autism. One of the most touching chapters in Born on a Blue Day is Tammet’s description of his meeting with Kim Peek, the real-life inspiration for Rainman, when the two were profiled in a recent television documentary.
Unlike Peek and many of his fellow savants, though, Tammet is as gifted with words as he is with numbers. That gift has translated into a book that captures, in simple and direct language, the texture of Tammet’s life and thoughts. The book reads almost like a travel guide to Tammet’s extraordinary mind—his clarity and depth of description make his experiences come alive for the reader. And the level of detail Tammet brings to his observation of the world around him almost compels you to move at his pace, to feel for yourself what it’s like to live in a world so richly textured that it can be overwhelming.
It’s hard to explain how a book so simply and straightforwardly written can be so emotionally powerful. Tammet’s voice is honest and authentic, sometimes conversational and sometimes abstract, but personal and engaging throughout. Like Temple Grandin, the noted animal behaviorist living with autism, Tammet tells his story frankly and fully, and invites you to join him in his experience. The result is nothing short of a revelation.
This is a must-read book for parents, teachers, and friends of anyone living with Asperger’s Syndrome or another autism-spectrum disorder; people who themselves are on the autistic spectrum may well experience it as an encouraging postcard from a familiar country. Most of all, though, this is an absorbing and highly personal look inside the mind and heart of another human being. It’s illuminating, touching, and inspirational.
Free Press
Memoir
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-3507-2
ISBN-10: 1-4165-3507-1
by Daniel Tammet
Daniel Tammet, the author of this moving and graceful memoir, has a very unusual mind. He is affected by Asperger’s Syndrome, a neurological condition related to autism; he’s also a mathematical and linguistic savant, who holds the world record for reciting more than 22,500 digits of pi, and who speaks several languages (including one he’s invented himself). And Tammet lives in a world of synesthesia, a cross-pollination of sensory perceptions where days (like the Wednesday he was born on) can be “blue” and sounds can have shapes.
There are a lot of challenges for someone in Daniel Tammet’s position. One thing this extraordinary book makes clear, though, is that there are also many opportunities. Tammet is candid about the difficulties he faces in dealing with tasks most of us take for granted, like understanding metaphors and listening to conversations in a crowded room. But when he writes about the ways in which his talents can take wing, the joy he feels in using his unique brain and its gifts is unmistakable.
Most of us are familiar with what’s called “savant syndrome” from the movie Rainman, featuring Dustin Hoffman’s unforgettable portrayal of a mathematical genius with autism. One of the most touching chapters in Born on a Blue Day is Tammet’s description of his meeting with Kim Peek, the real-life inspiration for Rainman, when the two were profiled in a recent television documentary.
Unlike Peek and many of his fellow savants, though, Tammet is as gifted with words as he is with numbers. That gift has translated into a book that captures, in simple and direct language, the texture of Tammet’s life and thoughts. The book reads almost like a travel guide to Tammet’s extraordinary mind—his clarity and depth of description make his experiences come alive for the reader. And the level of detail Tammet brings to his observation of the world around him almost compels you to move at his pace, to feel for yourself what it’s like to live in a world so richly textured that it can be overwhelming.
It’s hard to explain how a book so simply and straightforwardly written can be so emotionally powerful. Tammet’s voice is honest and authentic, sometimes conversational and sometimes abstract, but personal and engaging throughout. Like Temple Grandin, the noted animal behaviorist living with autism, Tammet tells his story frankly and fully, and invites you to join him in his experience. The result is nothing short of a revelation.
This is a must-read book for parents, teachers, and friends of anyone living with Asperger’s Syndrome or another autism-spectrum disorder; people who themselves are on the autistic spectrum may well experience it as an encouraging postcard from a familiar country. Most of all, though, this is an absorbing and highly personal look inside the mind and heart of another human being. It’s illuminating, touching, and inspirational.
Free Press
Memoir
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-3507-2
ISBN-10: 1-4165-3507-1
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